All Posts tagged insurance companies

Commentary on the Drug Epidemic

This was written by a friend Frank Greenagel Jr. via facebook

Another article on the opiate epidemic and the problems with insurance companies that make it difficult for their customers to get treatment. I’ve been beating the drum on this issue in newspapers, online and on the radio for over a year now.

The passage of the Good Samaritan law was a major victory. That said, we still have a high rate of overdose deaths, continued difficulty with getting insurance to pay for treatment and still FAR too many people getting their hands on prescription painkillers.

We need a lot of help. I’d like to see a recovery high school in New Jersey. We need a forward thinking superintendent to take a chance on creating an alternative school (it’s foolish to send a kid to rehab and then have them return to the very school where they were abusing drugs and/or booze). We need more Recovery College programs (even though it is an incredibly successful niche for Rutgers and myself, I desperately want to see more in NJ and throughout the USA). We need to drug test those that are getting prescription painkillers (to see if they are on other drugs, and more importantly, to see if they are actually taking the drugs they are prescribed (and not selling them) –>that’s an idea from 2 leading insurance companies, not mine). We need more training on this issue for tweens, teens, parents, teachers and clinicians. We need to expand the prescription drug monitoring program (which is already incredibly successful). We need more treatment options. Each dollar spent now saves between four and seven dollars down the road (criminal justice, healthcare, diminished work capacity, etc…).

Please spread the word. Educate one other person. If you are supremely motivated, call your state legislator and pass on whatever suggestions I made above to them. Change can happen from the ground up.

(mic drop)

http://www.mycentraljersey.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013305050025

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